VOD of the Dead - MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW (2023)
The internet has been a breeding ground for horror since the mid-90s, and while it is ever present in most of our media today (to some extent) the quality of horror content involving the World Wide Web is a mixed bag. From the earliest days of Ghost in the Machine to more modern narratives like Host, the dangers of the internet have always been present in both our real and imagined lives. When they work, digital-age horror stories evoke a genuine fear of the dystopian implications of the net that make us question our safety online. While the real-life ongoings on the darker sides of the internet are far more gruesome than our imagined stories, the worst of these internet-infused genre films treat the technology like a joke. They assign applications to the internet that are unrealistic and embellished to the point of being a parody. When it comes to the dark web, there is as much mystery as there is mischief to leverage for great horror storytelling. That is what Midnight Peepshow, now out on digital VOD platforms from Dark Star Pictures is aiming to illustrate. A detour into the depraved world of the dark web, but is this just another caricature of technology or does this series of stories hit closer to the homepage?
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
In MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW we are introduced to an unnamed Madame who owns and operates a peepshow offering patrons a tailor-made experience wrapped around their deepest desires, fears, and sins. Tonight, it welcomes a businessman who has a unique connection to an extreme fantasy website on the dark web. He soon becomes a witness to three stories of victims who found the same website, and now the Midnight Peepshow has found him. It will only be a matter of time before he is made to pay the ultimate price for dabbling in the dark side of his own desire.
HOW IS IT?
An anthology movie about the dark web sounds like a great idea on paper. There are so many directions one could take the possibilities, and all of them have horrific conclusions that could just as easily be pulled from today’s headlines as they could from the mind of a screenwriter. From drugs to sex trafficking and murder, there are seemingly limitless possibilities that could entice and frighten audiences. This is why it is so perplexing that Midnight Peepshow is so mundanely average. What should be a sordid series of stories about the dangers of those who lurk beneath the purview of the public internet is nothing more than a series of forgettable stories that treat the dark web more like a joke than something to be afraid of. Aside from some marginally clever ideas, Midnight Peepshow wants so desperately to be an extreme horror that it forgets the most important elements of extreme genre films are their close connection to reality.
Of the three stories told across the 97-minute run time none of them connect all that well to the film's point around the dangers of a dark web site called “The Black Rabbit”. Aside from the contrived naming, each of the stories involves ways in which The Black Rabbit site is deployed for its paying customers. Think of it like Hostel, but instead of paying to kill someone you are paying for them to be a part of a Saw-style game or trap. The emphasis in these stories isn’t on the people paying for the service, rather it is about the people who are the unfortunate recipients of the customer’s wishes. Some effort is made to elaborate on why and how these people end up in these situations, but it is all so pedestrian. A wife fed up with her cheating husband architects a home invasion gone wrong, a jaded ex-finance orchestrates a literal game of “Fuck, Marry, Kill”, and finally a woman employed by the Black Rabbit site realizes her actual turn-on is getting paid for sex no matter what the cost. All of these stories speak to more sexualized experiences one can have on the dark web, but the actual violence held within these stories is far tamer than one might expect given the context. Part of the problem lies in how exaggerated the dark web elements are here. The ideas put forward would insinuate that the dark web is something only the sickest of people can access when the reality is it is as accessible as anything else on the internet as long as one is willing to take the risk. To some extent, that is what’s missing, a sense of danger. While the final story alludes to this, it never fully realizes that point as the story pivots to the lowest common denominator of CGI violence paired up with sleazy sexuality. If the synopsis didn’t tell you this was about the dark web you may not even realize it.
Aside from the mediocrity of the stories themselves, there is a genuine effort being made to try and be provocative. These sentiments don’t really land as well as they should largely on account of how over-the-top the situations are. Save for the first story, the other two entries all feel like hyper-stylized versions of the dark web that are akin to how the 1995 film Hackers, made hacking look like a giant VR game of Snood (IYKYK). This oversimplification ultimately has an adverse impact on the quality of the film since all of it seems to highly improbable and stylized that it makes you wonder what the dark web elements add to the story. Given that all three stories center around love gone wrong, and there is some connection to Valentine’s Day mentioned, it would’ve made more sense for the film to forgo the dark web parts in favor of something like “Love, Actually, but make it horror”. Perhaps with that sense of focus we wouldn’t have some of the more useless elements like the Black Rabbit in favor of an idea more attuned to the themes underpinning each story. The last point to callout with regard to Midnight Peepshow has to do with some deceptive advertising. You’ll see Zach Galligan (Waxwork, Gremlins) as the marquee name here, which is kind of a half-truth. While his voice certainly does make an appearance in parts, the actor himself is physically absent from the film. This isn’t an issue, aside from the fact the film is marketed with his name on the header leading one to believe he visibly present in the film. A small gripe, but a gripe nonetheless.
LAST RITES
Midnight Peepshow isn’t a bad movie, it just isn’t a very good one. While the premise leaves lots of potential for intrigue, the execution is bland and forgettable. Much of this has to do with the lack of seriousness played toward the stories and their context, while the other is more of an identity crisis as Peepshow struggles to be truly transgressive rather than just imitating it.
THE GORY DETAILS
Directed By
Written By
Starring
Where can you watch it?
MIDNIGHT PEEPSHOW is available NOW on all VOD and Digital Streaming platforms!
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